Apocalypse Redux

Having slotted the Aspect, hands still trembling, Derek pushed the mental button that would pull up the Evolution menu, a mere thought filtering out everything he’d already seen … and was confronted with two options.

Sagelike Warmage (legendary)

They say that reasonable people adapt to the world, while it is those who are unreasonable who make the world adapt to them; as such, it is unreasonable people who drive progress.

By that metric, you are one of the most unreasonable people in existence.

After all, you have taken a very limited amount of power, one that should not have made you all that big of a threat in the grand scheme of things. If you were an ant, you would be one of those responsible for the “thirty humans are killed every year by ants” statistics.

This Class is about delving deeper into the mysteries of magic than anyone of your Level should, and wielding the wisdom found within to lethal effect, granting “easy” access to highly destructive magic, as well as empowering said magic beyond its normal bounds.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was cool and all, but not what he was after, because this was what he’d wanted:

Chimera (legendary)

There are many definitions of “Chimera.” The mythological one, the biological one, the one that has it as a symbol for the unachievable …

But in the grand scheme of things, it all comes down to a single statement: Chimeras. Are. Power.

Not powerful, but power itself, carrying the weight of history, mythology, and meaning upon themselves, a gestalt entity fusing together the advantages of whatever it is made up of, then adding its own power on top of that.

The Chimera Class grants its bearer the ability to draw more deeply upon the power of Aspects, Aspects which they will be able to gain, buy slots for, and finally slot far more easily than anyone else, combining immediate power with massive long-term potential to form the basis for any future build.

Derek grinned and mashed the “accept” button, then pulled up the [Skill] list.

Chimera

Central Skills

Aspect Integration

Aspect Hunter

Skills

Phantom Limb

Endless Desperation

Power Surge

Life Force Reactor

Elemental Form

Predator’s Force

Lifesurge

Inner Beast

Merge

Anima Bolt

Innumerable Mysteries (requires Privacy, superseeded by Bloodline)

Eye of the Predator (requires Inspect)

…

General Skills

Privacy (superseded by Bloodline)

Inspect

…

So … same exact one he’d found in the library. As powerful and rare as it was, the [Chimera] was shockingly well researched.

Five [Skill] points each, except Central [Skills] cost double, and General [Skills] always required only one, so he could grab [Inspect] right now, though it would be pretty much useless against anyone with [Privacy] unless he was at a much higher Level than them, and there wasn’t anyone weaker than him who could, in fact, have that [Skill]. As such, he’d need the [Class]-specific upgrade.

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[Innumerable Mysteries] was the upgrade to the [Privacy] [Skill] that was unlocked at the 1st Evolution, but had been rendered unobtainable by the fact that he’d already had a version of its protection from his Bloodline, though that had also resulted in him being unable to get it now.

C’est la vie, and all that.

As for the [Skills] … the Central [Skills] were obvious, he’d grab them. Same for the [Inspect] upgrade.

Beyond that, there were a couple of obvious picks, a handful of [Skills] that looked meh but were overpowered if one looked beneath the surface, and the rest … Derek was pretty sure that no matter what he’d picked, he’d eventually find himself longing for what he hadn’t.

Except [Inner Beast]. It was a berserking [Skill], and as someone going for a mage build, that kind of threat to his concentration wouldn’t fly.

So yes, a whole lot of [Skills] … precisely none of which he could buy right now. Though that would be fixable, considering how many Levels the XP he’d gotten from the golems would buy him.

Level 15, fifty Stat points and nineteen [Skill] points, counting the four he’d had left over. Enough for [Inspect], one Central and one normal [Skill]. Or three normal ones, but that felt like the worse idea.

[Aspect Integration] was the stronger [Skill], no doubt about it, but [Aspect Integration] was not just the one that created the greatest degree of long-term benefit, but would also let him easily shuffle things around again, get back the dragon Aspect, and take the Aspects he’d need for FTL.

Aspect Hunter (legendary)

Anyone can get an Aspect.

Anyone using the System can slot an Aspect.

Everyone can grow stronger by slotting Aspects, even those who have reached the peak of power in all other respects.

You have taken that idea to the extreme, proving your dedication to stealing the power of monsters and becoming a true Chimera, a beast in human skin who hungers for more!

As such, the drop rate for Aspects is quadrupled for both you and any party you are a part of, the increase in slot cost is halved, and the cost for both slotting and removing Aspects is removed (and they will remain intact when removed).

And finally, all Aspects will give five free Stat points (retroactive, limit once per slot/stack).

What the [System] wasn’t saying was that being able to freely extract and preserve Aspects meant he could freely change the [Skills] he obtained from Aspects, simply by taking them out and putting them back in, but taking other [Skills]. Beyond that, the extra Stat points were, well, free stat points.

Derek also quickly replaced the golem Aspect stack with a spare Acid Drake Aspect, just so that he had it at the ready.

As for the other [Skill] … [Lifesurge] was a healing [Skill] boosted by Aspects, and because one of Derek’s Aspects belonged to a Caladrius, he could use it on others, in all its overpowered glory, as proven by quickly scanning it.

But for right now, ranged offense was likely a better option, he felt, something with a proper oomph seemed like something desperately lacking after his fight with the Lesser Rock Titan.

Beyond that, [Predator’s Force] was a mental attack slash intimidation [Skill] he also wanted to get, but wasn’t as urgent, as a berserking [Skill], [Inner Beast] was incompatible with his build, and all other [Skills] were also not immediately needed. So he settled on [Anima Bolt].

Anima Bolt (legendary)

There are many terms for life force.

Chakra, Prana, Qi, but most of them are primarily used in a medicinal context.

This … this decidedly isn’t medicinal. In fact, it’s very much the opposite.

Anima Bolt is a decidedly absurd magical attack, empowered with every Aspect you hold, strengthened to untold heights while taking on the most beneficial portions of the corresponding monsters, growing to ever greater heights, surpassing the vast majority of spells in power while simultaneously not being a spell, thereby bypassing the typical limitations of and counters to those same spells.

Cost: 80 mana (10 per Aspect)/life force

Note: life force refers to one’s current health status, and its loss will result in temporarily reduced vigor, stamina, immune response, etc., rather than anything whose loss will result in permanent impairment, and can be recovered via regeneration/healing abilities

Current form: an invisible, burning, toxic beam of light partially out of phase with normal reality, capable of ignoring several kinds of armor, and/or redirecting its trajectory to strike a moving target

Yeah … nasty. And something he could use even when out of mana, or while his spellcasting was unavailable for another reason.

Most of the benefits of magic, none of the weaknesses, not even counterspell, and with the genuinely absurd growth potential of most [Chimera] [Skills].

Now, what could he test this out on?

As he gazed around the mess that had once been a summoning room (even if the mess would probably be undone with a wave of the hand once he was done), Derek could feel the weariness creep into his bones.

Honestly?

If shit hit the fan, he’d probably be able to fight, but in his current state, purposefully picking a fight with anything would be grossly irresponsible. And that was coming from the guy who’d spent the past few days picking fights with creatures three times his Level.

In the end, a tired wave of his hand sent a bolt of power into the wall, invisible to even his eyes but he could nevertheless feel where it was, and then it hit the wall and its location was suddenly obvious, as the mixture of acid and flame burned in the hole it had left, where the beam had detonated inside the magically reinforced concrete.

Holy … yeah, that was cool.

But at the same time, Derek felt like he’d drop the instant there was any place even remotely soft to land on.

Yep, time to pretend to be a responsible adult, and go to bed. Though he did wind up grabbing [Inspect] on the way there.

Inspect (common)

This Skill allows its user to inspect the Classes and Skills of other people, if not blocked by their Privacy Skill.

It is free to use and limited to line-of-sight only, furthermore, the target must be clearly visible, only being within your cone of vision is not enough.

The amount of information that can be gained is increased the higher your Level relative to yours, targetting those who are above you in Level will reduce in a comesurately lower amount of information.

This Skill has a Class-specific upgrade unique to each and every 1st Evolution.

It was mostly useless without the [Class]-specific upgrade, but he’d have to get it at some point anyway.